The FCS playoffs will expand from 20 to 24 teams next year. But even adding four spots to this year’s bracket wouldn’t have included all the teams that deserved to be there. When you start to look at which teams were left out, you realize just how fortunate Wofford was to get a first-round bye and a second-round game at home against New Hampshire.

These teams without invitations have legitimate gripes:

Lehigh (10-1) – You can say it was because of the overall quality of the Patriot League. But the Mountain Hawks can only play their schedule. They lost their finale against Colgate and would have had to go 11-0 to make postseason. Lehigh is the first 10-win team from an automatic-qualifier league to be left out since 1997.

Richmond (8-3) – The Spiders won a share of the tough Colonial Athletic Association. Their only three losses were to Virginia, No. 12 New Hampshire (by four points) and No. 4 Old Dominion (by eight). They beat then second-ranked James Madison.

Towson (7-4) – The Tigers also earned a slice of the CAA championship. Two of their losses came against Kent State (10-1) and LSU (9-2 and ranked ninth in the FBS) by 16 points after leading in the second quarter. Towson also destroyed New Hampshire last week in the regular-season finale, 64-35.

Eastern Kentucky (8-3) – EKU lost to a Big Ten team (Purdue), a ranked FCS team (Tennessee State) and an FCS playoff team (Eastern Illinois).

Northern Arizona (8-3) – The Lumberjacks lost their opener to Arizona State, then won eight straight before losing to Southern Utah in triple overtime and playoff-bound Cal Poly.

Some of the others: The Citadel (7-4) with losses to N.C. State and Wofford, wins against Georgia Southern and Appalachian State; Albany (9-2); Tennessee State (8-3); UT Martin (8-3); and Youngstown State (7-4), which had three of its losses against playoff teams and beat Pitt, 31-17.

About This Blog

Todd Shanesy is an award-winning sports writer who has been twice honored nationally by the Associated Press and more than two dozen times by the South Carolina Press Association. He is a native of Troy, Ohio, and studied journalism at Marshall University (1987 graduate). Shanesy is a former sports editor of the Florence (S.C.) Morning News and has been with the Spartanburg Herald-Journal since 1991.

Follow him two ways on Twitter: @ToddShanesySHJ and @TerrierTracker (for everything Wofford-related).